*Dr Martina Cleary.
‘DISGUST’ has been voiced by the founder of the Clare Pyrite Action Group (CPAG) with the vote made by two of the county’s TDs this week.
On Tuesday in the Dáil, Cathal Crowe (FF) and Joe Carey (FG) voted against giving extra time for an amendment put forward by the CPAG to the defective concrete block legislation to be discussed. Michael McNamara (IND) voted against the Government while Violet-Anne Wynne (IND) was not present.
Speaking to The Clare Echo, Dr Martina Cleary admitted, “I was disgusted, I was watching it live and I couldn’t believe what I was seeing, it was my worst fear that they would vote against us despite all they were saying. With politics, it’s not what they say, it’s what they do and they voted with their parties and against the people of Clare, it will take time for the people to realise the impact of what they did. The biggest Bill in the State’s history will now be passed without due scrutiny or the concerns of homeowners who have experience of this”.
Neither Deputy Crowe or Deputy Carey have justified their position to CPAG, their counterparts in Donegal, Charlie McConalogue (FF) and Joe McHugh (FG) were noticeably absent for the vote. “It is absolutely shocking what has been railroaded, it is disgraceful that people like Cathal Crowe and Joe Carey have the gall to pretend everything will be fine if we get included in a grant”.
A total of 80 amendments to the proposed legislation had been flagged but will not be considered. “80 amendments mean there were 80 serious flaws, it is weighted against homeowners,” Dr Cleary stated. She believed the move was made “to exclude people completely” from a redress scheme and warned that a chunk of homes in Clare will now miss out. “The rationale behind the damage threshold was to prioritise not to exclude, depending on the damage to the house you moved up the line, if you don’t meet it now you won’t qualify, it was never meant to be that way”.
Appeals process on the scheme is “dysfunctional,” the Crusheen woman highlighted. “It is designed to knock you out, you only have 28 days to come back if your house is rejected within the new design scheme”. During this one month window, homeowners will not be allowed to submit additional information, “the material rejected has to be submitted again” while a decision will be made based on “a cosmetic visual inspection” and not core testing with no access to an independent engineer. An extension from 28 to 90 days for an appeal was one of the amendments put forward by CPAG.
In what she labelled as “a real kicker,” homeowners that sign up to the scheme will be “handing over their legal rights to pursue any third party that could be sued”. She said, “by signing the grant you are signing away your rights to pursue the supplier”.
Meanwhile, 26 of Clare’s 28 councillors have responded to CPAG outlining that they would support their call for due time and consideration to the amendments. No response was received in the two-day window by Cllr Gerry Flynn (IND) or Cllr Liam Grant (GP), Flynn has previously spoken up for pyrite affected homeowners in the Council Chamber.
Martina told The Clare Echo that some councillors said “they didn’t like the tone” of the email received by CPAG. “Seriously it’s time for them to get over themselves, we’re dealing with the biggest crisis in the history of State, it’s spreading like wildfire, the tone I’m listening to the walls of my house is more disturbing than any tone of an email I could be put together, the tone of that is enough to be worried about rather than briefing councillors what they should know to be talking about, get over themselves. This is the devastation of people’s lives”.
